International Educators visiting Big Sky High School This Week

20 secondary school educators from around the world are in Missoula this week visiting Big Sky High School to learn about strategies for teaching high school students.

MCPS Communications Director Hatton Littman said the visiting teachers will be in Missoula through Thursday.

“The visit is funded through the U.S. State Department,” said Littman. “These international educators are spending time both at the University of Montana and at Big Sky High School. They’re learning about how we teach certain topics in American schools, specifically English Language Arts, History and Civics Education. For example, how we manage a Socratic seminar to engage discussion in a high school classroom, or they may learn specific pieces of content about American history, the U.S. Constitution and other topics. I know this year some of their content involves learning about the American West and the history of cowboys and ranchers in the American West.”

In addition, Littman revealed that Washington Middle School has qualified to become an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program.

“They found out this week that their application has been accepted and they are now an official candidate school,” she said. “They will now enter into as very rigorous planning process that includes all the staff at the school and all the parents in the school community to make sure that they identify what their middle years program will look like, and they’ll have another visit from the International Baccalaureate organization in a couple of years where they hope to be fully authorized as an IB World School.”

Currently, more than 1.3 million IB students attend over 4,700 schools in 141 countries.